


Watching His Back

by Fyliwion



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Tragedy, BAMF Riza Hawkeye, Bittersweet, Character Death, Dark, Drabble, F/M, Gen, Homunculi Win, POV Riza Hawkeye, accepting death, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26280907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyliwion/pseuds/Fyliwion
Summary: She promised to watch his back no matter what, regardless of the cost, even into hell.
Relationships: Riza Hawkeye/Roy Mustang
Kudos: 3





	Watching His Back

**Author's Note:**

> This was a short little drabble I wrote on ff.net years ago at 2 in the morning. I made a few changes that always bothered me and fleshed it out a little bit more. (Partially since I wrote it in 2006 and the series had a few more bombshells to drop). 
> 
> Any Quotes that are in italics are taken directly from the Manga. 
> 
> Warning: While there's no suicide in the fic, but the causes/acceptance of death is questionable. If it's something that bothers you, it might not be your cup of tea.

It was raining.

Of course it was raining, hard enough that it fell in waves off the roof and windows, filling the gutters and splashing onto the hem of her uniform. 

It was raining, and so a single gunshot was all it took.

The weapon was cold as iron in her shaking hand. It bit at her fingers as she clutched the gun like a life line and fell to her knees. 

Not a single drop of blood on her.

But then, that was the point of a gun? A clean kill, cold, merciless and unattached, to keep you from dirtying your hands.

Her eyes flickered to the body laying in the rain water. The blood turned the growing flood pink and then red, stark against the black paving stones. She felt blank staring at it, just another corpse whose blood was washing away in the gutter. 

Of course there had rarely been rain in Ishval. 

What did they say? Human's were trash? 

She had never believed those words. 

She'd still didn't believe it, even watching his body tossed away in the shadows, even descending into the lowest rink of hell. 

The water ran down her cheeks, wetting her face and lips, the salt stinging her tongue. 

She shook her head looking towards the sky, it was raining after all....

* * *

Six months later she stared up at the homunculus known as Fuhrer Bradley with fury in her eyes. 

"Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, you are charged with the murder of Brigadier-General Roy Mustang. What is your plea?"

She calmly looked wrath in the eye and matched it.

" _ To entrust my back to you means that you can shoot me from behind anytime. _

_ If I step off of the path, shoot and kill me with those hands." _

"Guilty"

It was raining again, she could hear it from the courtroom as they led her away. As they stepped into the downpour she looked down at her rain slick hands and murmured an apology. 

"I'm sorry Sir, I tried but I’m not you."

" _ And you will protect only whom you can...even if it's only a few, protect those below you.And those below you would also protect those below them. No matter what happens, live and continue to survive greedily." _

"But then Sir... you didn't keep your promise either."

_ Live, and let's change this country together. _

In concerns to death, they say there are three types of people: those who fear it, those who seek to conquer it, and those who face it. This is not necessarily true.

For the average man he fears the unknown. He fears what comes after and what he sees as atonement for his sins. He sees death as something that is yet to come, something that he will have to face and something that will swallow him whole.

There are those like the alchemists. Like the Elric brothers who try to go beyond death and do the impossible. Those who seek to pass the doors and set them ajar doing what they say is possible of no man. Those who have seen the truth and defied it.

There are those who never face the gates. Those individuals who seek and gain immortality, only questioning what's there, lurking just behind the otherside. Wondering what cost is hiding in wait for them once the end finally comes, and defying it all the same.

Then there were those like Riza Hawkeye, who had seen death first hand. Who had dealt it swiftly and as kindly as any human might. Whose list of names was written in bullets and blood, and who awaited it like a lover come to steal her away in the night. 

It was a betrayal of the bitterest kind. A broken promise to the one person she could account as family. An affair with the dark lady, replacing his flames and light with the cold blanket of night. 

Because Riza Hawkeye was no alchemist to resurrect the dead. The Hawk’s Eye had lost that test at the age of seven, and again at fifteen when her father saw her as nothing more than an empty notebook to write on rather than learn. 

No. She was old friends with death, and her bullets may open doors but only to the gates of hell. 

She should know. There was no greater hell then the one she had lived in for six months now. She had followed him, and now  she would pay her price. 

An equivalent exchange. 

The knowledge she had tried, and hope that he might forgive her her failure.

_Still,_ she thought, _better we have our souls then lived in a cursed eternity._

In the end, she thought it the better choice. 

The final Truth.

...And a chance to see him one more time. 

**Author's Note:**

> Backstory: Basically something (see what happens with Envy etc) goes wrong and Roy takes everything a step too far. Maybe he agreed to become Greed instead of Ling or something akin to it. Hawkeye makes the call and kills him before he can be used as a weapon since he's stepped off his path. He's Brigadier General since I figured thought it was unfair Hughes would be posthumously be raised in rank but not Roy.


End file.
